Bernie Ecclestone wants boffins to steer clear of rulebook

Formula One supremo pondering the wisdom of allowing engineers and scientists to devise the sport's regulations.
Bernie Ecclestone wants to stop Formula One’s boffins writing the rules after criticism over a dull season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix poured into his office yesterday.
The first race of 2010 was one of the most eagerly awaited in years with four world champions on the track. But the race was a flop as new regulations, including a ban on refuelling, led to a procession with almost no overtaking.
Ecclestone, Formula One’s commercial rights-holder, believes that allowing the engineers and scientists who work for the teams to write the technical regulations has led to a sport in which staring at computers and worrying about tyre pressures have become more important than the spectacle. But he does not want a radical overhaul of the new rules yet.
“There is no panic, no crisis for F1,” he said. “I think there is nothing we can do immediately and we should not just knee-jerk into changes.

“I had a meeting with the teams and tried to explain to them what our business is about — racing and entertaining the public, not about playing with computers and going fast over one lap. The problem is that you cannot really have teams in any shape or form having a part in the sporting or technical regulations. You cannot have the inmates writing the regulations.”
Ecclestone wants to hand the job to a team of outside experts but that is a long-term objective and the question is whether Formula One needs a rapid change now. Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, wants the immediate introduction of two mandatory pitstops to break up the field.
That is likely to be rejected by Jean Todt, the new president of the FIA, the sport’s governing body. He will want to see what happens at the next three races, in Australia, Malaysia and China, before being pushed into making any sweeping alterations.
Ecclestone believes that the rules need to be given time, while Ferrari, for whom Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa took a 1-2 finish in Bahrain, will veto any proposals to add to pitstops.
Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion, also believes that the new regulations need time to work.
“The rules are fine,” the Canadian said. “One race doesn’t mean anything. The worst thing would be for sudden changes before everybody is sure what they want.”
Source:The Times